Checking out Corporate Mass Surveillance in its Varied Genres

The AIM Network

2 years ago

By Denis Bright

Thanks to a series of articles in Choice magazine, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has opened investigations into the legality of trials of facial recognition technology by a number of firms within the Westfarmer Network. This corporate network extends to Bunnings, Office Works, K Mart, Target and Coles. The trials began at Bunnings and K Mart stores. Fortunately, the OAIC is working on this problem to investigate some of the issues raised in that Choice article. I can see nothing that is sinister about these investigations. Corporate surveillances in its varied genres must always operate within the bounds of existing and future privacy acts at state and federal levels of government.

Portrayed as a haven for struggling mom and dad investors by neoconservatives, the Westfarmer network is also a haven for shareholdings by major multinational financial institutions. The Hongkong and Shanghai Corporation (HSBC) is the largest shareholder. Major global financial institutions own half the shares in the company.

Bunnings Chief Information Officer Simon McDowell continues to justify the facial recognition trials. A media statement was issued to me to assist in the preparation of this article. I have no problems sharing the comment in full in the interests of balanced but critical journalism:

Everyone has the right to come to work and feel safe from verbal and physical abuse however our team have faced a big increase in threatening incidents – despite us investing heavily in training and security to help protect them.

When we have customers berate our team, pull weapons, spit, or throw punches – we ban them from our stores. But a ban isn’t effective if it’s hard to enforce.

Facial recognition gives us a chance to identify when a banned person enters a store so we can support our team to handle the situation before it escalates.

For absolute clarity, an individual’s image is only retained by the system if they are already enrolled in the database of individuals who are banned or associated with crime in our stores.

We don’t use it for marketing or customer behaviour tracking, and we certainly don’t use it identify regular customers who enter our stores as CHOICE has suggested.

We’ve confirmed to the OAIC that the technology is temporarily switched off in our stores and given an investigation is underway we won’t be using it for the time being.

We’re extremely disappointed that CHOICE has chosen to mischaracterise the issue, especially given the extensive explanations we have provided to them.

Travelling overseas, and here, I see few instances of public nuisance as described in the media release from Bunnings. I am sure that these unpleasant incidents do occur. It is more likely that these rare incidents are generated more by mental health conditions over criminal or terrorist tendencies.

The dark shadows of bloody incidents at Port Arthur (1996) and Christchurch (2019) are a global reality which better and more open security might be able to contain in the future. Firearm violence is a fact of life in most countries. There were 134,000 deaths or injuries in the USA from firearm violence according to Amnesty International in 2017.

Australian crime rates vary with social stresses and the wealth divide in society. Australia’s overall crime index is significantly lower than in the bleak years of the recession of the early 1990s when the official unemployment rate reached double digit proportions. The neoliberal model of economic development continues to magnify the income divide in society. The legalized tax evasion which is tolerated by neoconservative governments reinforces the problem. Hospitals and welfare systems are currently stretched to the limit in Australia and beyond.

The Australian mainstream media seems to overlook the extent of homelessness in our streets. On these freezing nights in late winter, more people are huddling in public places with their few belongings in plastic shopping bags, shopping trolleys or suitcases.

I saw this social divide in the United States almost fifty years ago. I hoped that this would never be exported to Australia.

After the dismissal of the Whitlam Government by the Governor-General in 1975, Australia also headed towards its first phase of double digit unemployment since the 1930s in the last gasp of the Fraser Government in the early 1980s.

Poverty in the midst of a growing economy is still being relieved by food distribution at locations like Bunyapa Park in West End. The line of recipients extends into the adjacent streets every week.

Community Friends Ltd. is to be commended for its generosity as public sector budgets for job start and rent subsidies are tightened or subjected to more conditions.

Corporate Australia has a big faith in mass surveillance of Australians for protection against the social stresses of a competitive society. This faith imposes financial costs on struggling small business proprietors under siege from rent, leasehold and shared security costs in shopping centres.

As shopping moved from the high street to shopping malls and drive in centres like Bunnings Warehouses over the past half century, there has been an exponential increase in corporate surveillance of customers. Batteries of cameras can be observed at every access point. Even automated check-outs at some supermarkets carry camera devices to check on the failure to scan all items being carried out of the store. It is for the OAIC to keep a check on the legality of this surveillance. It is actually just the tip of the iceberg of corporate surveillance.

Mass surveillance continues through digital marketing strategies largely by the biggest firms in town. It is performed by business loyalty cards, email servers, mobile phones and the full battery of other soft media networks. Facial recognition technology maybe the least harmful of the new technologies if its existence is fully acknowledged to all customers after new limits are placed on its use as an outcome of the OAIC inquiry.

Even smaller shopping centres hire one or two layers of security guards at significant expense to the shopping centre. There are security guards within supermarkets themselves and in adjacent food courts.

Incidents of the type mentioned in the Bunnings media statement help to justify the presence of more security staff. I shared my observations about the Southpoint Shopping Centre in Grey Street, South Brisbane with readers some time ago.

The gravity of the theft of a chocolate bar or a packet of chewing gum as an after-school dare should be balanced against the blind-spots of staff at centre management. Since this article was distributed on 2 January 2020, a McDonald’s outlet has been added to the food court but there is no signage on the toilet facilities. Regular customers using the facilities are made aware that they are being videoed as they open the entry door to the toilet corridor. Older customers who are less aware of the layout of the shopping centre need to ask security guards or retail staff about the location of the toilet facilities. I do not understand what this arrangement is meant to prove.

Likewise, security services vary in quality across Brisbane. Some have an outstanding reputation. The best providers know how to handle local problems near school facilities. There are always possibilities for more liaison with local school administrators and students. The training of security guards is also of paramount importance to reduce community tensions over petty crime.

In the US traditions of profit making trade schools and commercial colleges, Asset College has emerged at nine locations across Australia to train security guards and security personnel. The web site promotions for Asset College claim that it is a family oriented business venture but there is no public access to available annual reports even though it is in receipt of funding from government agencies. Interested readers should check out the web site of Asset College and offer feedback though the replies section to articles published on AIM Network.

Some security providers have a real forte for openness about their operations.

The security services at University of Queensland (UQ) adapt to the presence of thousands of energetic students each day. Problems like a few youthful indiscretions on the oval at night are picked up on security cameras. Residential college administrators are tipped off about the inappropriateness of some old college traditions in a digital age. Good and inclusive security makes UQ a very quiet campus which seems to be largely free of cases of creating a public nuisance as described in the media statement from Bunnings.

Just after President Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan there was a little protest at the entrance to the UQ library over the arrival of Retired Major General Jim Molan (now LNP Senator for NSW) to talk up Australian support for the troop surge at a public forum. No UQ security guards rushed to intervene but the event would have been picked up by security cameras and soon forgotten.

Forgetfulness however is not a feature of digital marketing with the support of artificial intelligence (AI). The extent to which saturation photographic surveillance has been linked to digital data the use of credit cards, reward cards, mobile phones, email servers and the vast array of other soft media resources is not fully acknowledged and rarely discussed in the mainstream media. Digital marketing and research firms probe every aspect of their customers’ profiles and often operates offshore beyond the controls of our existing privacy regulations.

Google Analytics (GA) in Chicago boasts about its digital marketing outreach:

Google analytics is a powerful tool. When you delve deeper into customer segments, you can learn valuable information about your customer base, and better target potential customers and ideal customers in the future.

By adding a simple line of code to your GA tracking code, you can unlock a ton of great data about your customers, including age and gender. You can get a breakdown of how many visitors fit into each category and what percentage of your traffic they make up.

Insights into audience demographics can help you identify which subsections of the population are your target customers and assist in building your ideal customer profile.

Firms like similarweb in New York as well as Tel Aviv and its global subsidiaries apply web analytics to assist in protecting corporate clients from competing firms.

Probably without the knowledge of Bunnings in far-off Australia, similarweb has generated a profile of the browsing history of customers interested in products across the hardware and homecare range. The digital analytics extend to the person interests and media viewing profiles so that advertising can be targeted to improve the market outreach of client firms. The resultant profiles are available are available at enormous costs. Interested readers should check out the resources available on similarweb but they will need to pay for the detailed reports.

It is in the financial interest of major on-line supplies of hardware and home range products to snoop on the operations of Bunnings itself. On-line providers can indeed erode the market share of local providers and have a vested financial interest in controlling unethical research by multinational rivals wishing to penetrate the Australian market.

Market analytics is also transforming democratic politics by fostering an interest in more sensational issues to divert voters away from more legitimate concerns about the quality of living standards, healthcare or community infrastructure through exhaustive media monitoring. This is contributing to the fracturing of mainstream political parties and the success of far-right political agendas.

In this murky corporate world, legalized tax avoidance is rampant as shown by publication in The Guardian (10 December 2021) of the latest round of major Australian corporations which paid no company tax since 2013.

Keen local students should be made aware that Knight Frank Australia Holdings Pty Ltd with its revenue base of over $133 million that year paid no company tax for 2019-20. Perhaps the company overspent on shopping centre security at Southpoint as the Australian subsidiary within the global Knight Frank empire with its global network of 500 company offices. Obviously, the Australian Tax Office was satisfied with its company tax returns under the previous LNP government as returned for 2019-20 should be finalized by now.

These complex issues of legalized corporate surveillance and tax minimization needs to be kept in the public domain as the Albanese Governments strives to improve health, welfare and affordable housing support. Readers should offer their feedback to keep the issue under investigation while the firms involved in digital marketing of course prefer self-regulation.

My computer hits to research this article have increased my exposure to advertisements for hardware products and home security devices. I am not looking for more wheelbarrows and security cams in my quest for a more inclusive and socially just Australia. I did support the petition from change.org to request Bunnings to stop selling glue traps which cause pain and suffering to animals.

Mass surveillance of customers is a highly sensitive issue in Australia and beyond. A greater market share can be delivered to those companies who want to be upfront about just what is going on in their stores and shopping centres with a little more commitment to accountability over digital marketing and tax minimization.

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Denis Bright is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback by using the Reply button on The AIMN site is always most appreciated. It can liven up discussion. I appreciate your little intrusions with comments and from other insiders at The AIMN. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Reply button.